Description

The SILENCIOS project aims to evaluate and introduce the use of green and clean alternatives in fishing vessels and auxiliary vessels for small fisheries, helping to establish the bases for a more sustainable and less impactful development of extractive activity that contributes to achieving the good environmental status of the marine environment.

SILENCIOS incorporates innovative proposals into the fishing sector to reduce its impact on the environment (noise pollution and carbon footprint) by studying the feasibility of using green alternatives in small fishing vessels. The project will allow us to continue advancing in the knowledge of marine noise, improving data collection and the characterization of natural and human sources in areas of high extractive activity. A detailed analysis of different inshore fishing activities in Galicia and other autonomous communities is proposed, which will allow expanding the options of incorporating clean propulsion in these small boats. In addition, the feasibility of using electrical solutions and alternative energy sources such as powering auxiliary machinery, which will lead to a clear reduction in noise and emissions, will be evaluated. The collaboration of the fisheries and scientific sector is key to achieving the objectives in a collaborative way.

To achieve this, SILENCIOS works along two fundamental lines:

1. Improve existing knowledge about the main sources of marine noise in areas with high extractive activity, in continuity with what was done in SILENCIO and based on what was learned there
2. To develop innovative and sustainable solutions that reduce the marine noise generated by extractive activity and that also reduce the carbon footprint generated by the sector.

At the same time, it works to empower the fishing sector and enhance its commitment to the problem of the noise impact of its activities and sustainable development and to disseminate the idea of an environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and economically viable extractive sector in accordance with the provisions of the EMFF.

Likewise, as a specific internal objective, for the control of a correct execution, SILENCIOS pursues an efficient management of the project by developing the planned actions in time and scope, with the planned resources, ensuring correct risk management and the involvement of the main stakeholders.

Throughout the project, the following results are expected to be achieved:

• To monitor ambient noise in areas of high extractive activity and high environmental value.
• To monitor light pollution in areas of high extractive activity and high environmental value
• To obtain an operational algorithm to distinguish between sources of anthropogenic and natural origin in areas of high extractive activity.
• Make noise and light pollution records open access
• Characterization of use cases suitable for the use of electric propulsion in small fishing vessels or fishing auxiliaries. At least characterize four different uses.
• Proposal of solutions to incorporate electric motors into auxiliary fishing machinery.
• Estimation of the reduction in noise intensity (Db) caused by the incorporation of electric motors in pullers of small fishing vessels and fishing auxiliaries.

These objectives will be achieved through the implementation of the actions into which these four activities are subdivided, all of them with their corresponding sources of verification and associated budget, giving the project a clear supra-autonomous character (collaboration with fishermen’s guilds and development of activities in collaboration with leading scientific institutions, both in Catalonia, Valencian Community and Andalusia), environmental (action in areas with different protection figures) and social (involving the fishing sector in the process itself, reinforcing its role as an actor in governance and making visible the role that women have in it).

See the project